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New York Giants Tuesday Morning Storylines: Robert Griffin III, Dallas Cowboys & More

October 23rd, 2012 at 10:30 AM By Simon Garron-Caine

The New York Giants game against the Washington Redskins is in the rearview mirror, but thoughts of Robert Griffin III still linger…as Tony Romo and his scuffling Dallas Cowboys await. Now that we've given the skin-of-their-teeth win over the 'Skins a day to breathe, let's take a look at some developing story lines for Big Blue.

After the six-sack performance in San Francisco, the defensive line picked up another three against Griffin, two of which caused fumbles. After a noticeable lack of its signature pass rush, the defensive line may just be waking up at the right time: in the next few weeks they'll face good passing attacks in Tony Romo, Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, RG3 again, Drew Brees and Matt Ryan. Yikes.

The Cowboys edged Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers, barely:

Sure, a win is a win…but the Cowboys have been scuffling lately. They lost ugly games to the Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears before not playing very well but squeaking by the 1-5 Panthers (who, well, we'll be nice and just say they aren't very good).

As mentioned above, but the Giants upcoming schedule is brutal. Brutal. If you've seen the Giants have as many mid-season swoons under Tom Coughlin as we have, you'll understand the importance of some breathing room.

Handling the Cowboys this week will put Los Gigantes at 6-2, erase the Cowboys tiebreaker and give the Giants a 2.5-game lead on the Cowboys. They'll also have, at the very least, a 1.5-game lead on the Philadelphia Eagles and a 2-game lead on the Skins.

Last word on Angry Ahmad:

The television cameras caught a fiery Ahmad Bradshaw getting into it with running backs coach Jerald Ingram, head coach Tom Coughlin and even wide receiver Victor Cruz. This is really a "nothing to see here" situation, especially since everyone from the head coach to to the player himself to his teammates aren't upset with Bradshaw.

But, for information's sake, Dan Graziano over at ESPN's NFC East blog posits that Bradshaw was upset that the Giants were taking it easy on him and his achy feet, while Jenny Vrentas over the NJ.com reports Bradshaw was telling his coach "Run the ball!"

A pat on the back for Chase Blackburn:

There's probably not a starter on the Giants who gets more grief around here than Chase Blackburn. He's too slow, he's got cement blocks for feet, Mark Herzlich is coming for his job…it's nothing new.

So we thought it worth mentioning that this morning's Daily News in their Giants notes column had a blurb that labeled Chase this week's "Unsung Hero." Sure, his limitations on the field are often apparent, but his 11 tackle (seven solo) performance against tough runner Alfred Morris was worth noting.

GOAT56 says: October 23, 2012 at 9:56 AM Dallas is still dangerous. Romo while inconsistent like Vick he has the ability to play great and even outplay Eli in a given game. He can get away from the rush and make some plays and throws on his own that you just can’t defense. They have WRs capable of beating our CBs and a healthier Witten. Also, we had trouble with Felix Jones last year so while he might not be as good as Murray he’s good enough to give them some balance, especially since we seem to struggle stopping their run no matter their back.

Their defense now has Radliff and Spencer back to go along with Ware so their pass rush should be even better than week 1. They still have 4 good CBs and combined with their pass rush could be present problems for our passing game.

Lastly, they are desperate. While most real football fans look at Dallas as an average or slightly above average team this team has the SB in its sights. By losing to us they would fall 2.5 games behind us with no more games left to play vs us. But by winning they would be tied in the lost column, with a season sweep and dropping us to a 1-3 division record.

This is a big game just like the redskin game was a big one. First place is basically on the line again, we lose and the division is completely up for grabs and at 1-3 we would have a hard time winning any tie breakers other than Washington if we finished tied. While we all assume Dallas should be desperate, we need to be as well. 1-3 in the division is much better than 0-3, especially if you are swept by one team. Philly and Dallas while looking bad in many games still are winning enough to tread water. If we give both these teams an opening by losing this game those teams are talented enough to beat enough teams on their schedules that we could be in trouble. Even as much as Dallas struggled last year if they sweep us they are 10-6. 10-6 this year with a sweep of us would mean we have to go at least 11-5 to win the division. Which we could do but it’s no easy task with our schedule. And the NFC wildcard pool at 10-6 could be deep enough that it’s a repeat of 2010.

Reply JimStoll says: October 23, 2012 at 10:05 AM Goat said:

But by winning they would be tied in the lost column, with a season sweep and dropping us to a 1-3 division record.

If we do lose, we truly will be in the “lost” column!!

Reply fanfor55years says: October 23, 2012 at 10:29 AM We will either be 1-3 or 2-2 in the division after Sunday.

This is an important game, but it isn’t a “must win”. At 5-3 and with Phillips returning soon I’d till like our chances of getting to 10 wins and you have to remember that Dallas, Philadelphia and the Redskins still need to play a lot of games against each other. Could one of them get to 10 wins? Sure, but I wouldn’t bet on it right now.

In any case, I think we should win. We will be nearly as healthy on Sunday as we are likely to be all season. For a change, we are actually the healthier team on the field. Given that at full health I think we have more talent than the Cowboys and better coaching, we have a big advantage going into the game. But of course there was that Week 1 game, so we have to be concerned and the players have to go in there and give a big effort.

My instincts, though, tell me we’re more likely to see a San Francisco-type game Sunday than what we usually see against the Cowboys. I think we’re going to dominate them.

As much as I’d love to see it, I just don’t see a SF-type game coming up. I think we’re more likely to see a 30-24, 27-23 type of contest where it comes down to who makes the biggest play in the fourth quarter.

Also, while this isn’t a must-win per se, it would really, REALLY behoove the Giants to win this football game with their upcoming schedule. If the Giants get to 6-2, that puts Dallas at 3-4, and with Philly playing Atlanta, the Eagles could also end up 3-4. That would mean the Giants could afford an extra loss throughout their tough upcoming schedule.

Get to 5-3 though, and you’re looking at potentially having to go 4-1 in the rough five-game stretch after the bye leading up to the season finale against the Eagles, because something tells me Dallas will not go away quietly if they beat us this weekend.

kinsho says: October 23, 2012 at 10:49 AM I think you’re giving too much credit to Dallas. Yes, Romo can make plays. Yes, their wide receivers are capable of beating our secondary. But if the past couple weeks are any indication, the Cowboys have been playing horribly, ugly football.

To Romo’s credit, I don’t think he turned the ball over as much over the past two games as he did against Chicago, but he’s still struggling in leading this team, let alone getting on the same page as Dez. Now with a defensive line that’s starting to believe in itself again, our pass rushers should have a better shot at pressuring Romo as long as the secondary forces him to hang onto the ball for a couple seconds.

Meanwhile, his receivers fared pretty poorly last week against the pathetic Panthers last week. Romo only managed to complete one deep pass to Miles Austin for a touchdown. Otherwise, all of his passes were check downs. Our secondary is anything but top-notch, but they should be able to do a decent job of containing the Cowboys receivers as long as they stick to their assignments and try not to do anything too fancy.

Felix Jones lacks the energy and burst that DeMarco Murray brings to the game. And aside from the first half of the Redskins game, our run defense has gotten much better over the weeks.

Likewise, our offensive line has kicked it up a notch with Sean Locklear now. Dallas’ pass rushers will have a harder time trying to frustrate Eli.

Our receivers have shaken off their rust from that first game. Hakeem is not 100%, but he’s still a force to reckon with in the flat. Victor Cruz is still a dangerous man capable of making big plays. Domenik Hixon, Ramses Barden, and even Reuben Randle have shown quite a bit of promise.

Aside from the Redskins game, our run game has taken a huge leap forward as well. And in all fairness, the Giants were intent on throwing the ball all over that Redskins secondary, which explains why the rushing yardage dipped back down that game.

What else am I missing here? Our team is fairly healthy outside of Rocky and Phillips. The Cowboys injuries, on the other hand, are seriously enough to necessitate some changes in game-planning.

We should be able to dominate this game. The only x-factor here is the Cowboys mentality. If the Cowboys TRULY see this as a ‘do anything to win’ game, then yes, we’ll be in for a tough physical fight. But that’s still an x-factor.

They did beat us week one and msotly because of Romo. I’m not giving too Romo too much credit, I’m seeing that he has at least 4-5 brillant perforances every year and he’s done it vs us 2 out of the last 3 times. That first game last year we only won because of Eli and JPP, Romo was GREAT. They had no Murray in that game but Felix Jones had nearly 100 yards.

I think people are overrating the redskins. If we play like we did against Washington, Dallas can easily beat us. Dallas has a way better defense, more talented skill players and a QB capable of beating us on broken plays as well.

Odd to see us switch roles for this game. You were getting on my case for being pessimistic about the Giants chances against the 49ers. Now it’s the other way around.

Romo played great last year, but Eli flat out outplayed him in both games. We have the better QB, period.

And yes, while the Boys did beat us week one and they did put up a great fight last year, the Giants team I’m seeing now is a much different beast. This Giants team is capable of playing well in almost every single aspect of the game. Most importantly, we can now run the ball on a fairly consistent basis, a luxury that wasn’t really afforded to us early in the season or last year. Throw in a defense that can generate turnovers with help from a dominating defensive line and a kick returner that’s a legit threat and you have the makings of a complete team there.

I think it’s a case of games like the one against the 49ers are games the Giants tend to win. Tough opponent, on the road, everyone picking against them.

Games like this one against Dallas though tend to slip out of the Giants’ grasp. Now I fully believe that THIS Giants team is VERY different than the ones we saw in 2009, 2010, and through the first 14 games of last season, but let’s not discount the notion that the Cowboys need this game more than the Giants do.

I am arguably THE most optimistic person on this board (possibly even moreso than demo) and I certainly think the Giants are superior to Dallas, but this is not going to be an easy game. The Cowboys are going to give the Giants everything they have, and I don’t think we’ll win this game with a C+ or B- performance like we’re able to do just about any other week.

I feel good about this game as a do every game with our talent. My point is these games are more the same than they are different. Dallas has talent and enough to beat us but if we play well we will win. Looking atthe rest of our schedule this will be my stand every week. Some weeks I will feel a little better or worse but my general thought will remain assuming health.

My point is not that I think we will lose or Dallas is as good. My point is that this is a very important game. Of course it’s not must win but there is a large difference between winning and losing this game. I think many can see why Dallas would come into this game with desperation but I think you urge to win should match theirs. If we lost this game verse Dallas to me it signals that there are a lot of teams we could lose to in the second half, basically everyone we play. This game to me shows if we are being mature enough as a team to give a quality effort week in and week out.

This is a game we should win. We know the road does not bother us so to me that’s not even a factor. We are better and they are missing some vital parts.

Indeed. Dallas will likely give us a tough match-up, what with them being a desperate division rival. But even if Dallas gave us their all, I still think we come out of this game as winners by a comfy margin.

But yeah, this is the end of the road for Dallas if they lose, unless they go on a monstrous winning streak.

I have been saying for the past two weeks that this game scares the heck out of me, and my stance hasn’t changed.

The Cowboys are desperate and need this game more than the Giants do. Yes, I know the Giants play better on the road and haven’t lost in Dallas since 2008, but it would be silly to say that I am more confident because the game isn’t at MetLife. The Cowboys are going to be extremely fired up and will gave the G-Men everything they have this weekend.

The one thing playing in our favor is the fact that Dallas beat the Giants in Week 1, and coming into this season, I never would have thought the ‘Boys could sweep Big Blue. That being said, I’m still worried.

As FF55 already pointed out, Witten is likely going to have a field day against Blackburn. It wouldn’t shock me to see him catch 10 or more passes. I mean, the Redskins’ third-string TE was doing work over the middle of the field the other day. Imagine what Witten can do?

The key to this game will just be to constantly be in Romo’s face and force him to make tough throws. We all know what happens to Romo when you put pressure on him. However, give him time to maneuver around in the pocket and throw on the roll, and we’re in trouble.

All things considered, the Giants played a pretty terrible football game against Dallas on opening night, and yet they still only lost by a touchdown. That was also without Canty, and Murray and Lee were both on the field for the Cowboys. I’d like to think that if the Giants just come with a good gameplan and play mistake-free football, they’ll win the game.

I don’t think for a minute that DullA$$ secondary (especially the loud mouth they picked up from KC) can come close to controlling the Giants receivers. And the better Nicks feels the more confident I become. Nicks is missing his speed going in and out of his cuts and his leaping ability. Having 85 percent of Hakeem is plenty enough for the girls.

Much of what the turds did that first game had to do with Nicks and Cruz not being ready (physically and mentally respectively) and the offensive line looking like crap. A lot has changed.

More good news:

The defensive line is in much better shape. And after chasing RG around, Romo will seem like playing at half speed. Hopefully Rivers and Williams can inject more speed in underneath coverage.

Once again I call for the Psycho Giants to show up. Fixed sitars focused single minded serial killers. You know….like Eli?

The talk matters not, just as long as the players understand that the game is played on the field. They also need to know that your rear end needs to be able to support the weight of your mouth.

The other day I was reading a bit on a Cowboys forum and they seem to be VERY down on Carr. It seems that he played well the first couple of games (they say because he got away w/ holding), but has been close to terrible since. I think they get torched this time around. I think Eli will show that his past 6 quarters of play was the exception rather than the rule

I personally think we make a statement in this game similar to the SF game. You can make a strong argument that we’re a much better team than in Week 1 (healthier too), while Dallas has been trending the opposite direction. In fact, over the past few years the margin of victory over Dallas has been a 7+ more often than not. In my opinion, the past 2 games posed a much greater challenge than the one upcoming.

Thanks. I’ve actually been around since the MVN days, but have mostly been a browser (although I have posted in spurts over the years). I was having issues w/ my old username and then had subsequent issues creating a new one. My schedule is finally clearing up so I should have plenty of free time to join in on some great discussions.

Anyway, to the author of the article, thanks for giving Chase Blackburn some much-needed positive cred for his performance in the Redskins game. Yeah, he blows plays every now and then, but he’s a true role model for the team in every sense of the word. He’s always out there giving it his all, even if he’s physically limited. Not to mention that he does make his fair share of good plays.

Mark Herzlich will eventually replace him, but I think TC and Fewell are more than happy to leave Blackburn as the starter at MIKE for the rest of the season considering his experience and the effort he gives in every game.

A bit off topic, but lsat week I posted that Cruz has clearly demonstrated that he’s not a one-year wonder. He’s a clear elite WR. And we need to LOCK him up for long term.

Now, how much do you think he’ll demand, and how much is Reese willing to dish out?

I’m thinking if he’s among the elite, his agent will probably demand 6-8 mil a year AT LEAST.

What will Reese offer??? This scares me a lot because Reese is not known to give out big contracts for our in-house guys. And he has Nicks to keep in mind, as his contract is up one year later. And whatever he gives Cruz, Nicks will want more. Man, we’re in a pickle.

Cruz will command a big star’s contract. And will deserve it. This will be quite a dance between Reese and his agent. But Cruz, and Reese, will sit down knowing that one Mr. Eli Manning will want Cruz back and be quite unhappy if he isn’t a Giants receiver for the remainder of Mr. Manning’s career. Jerry is going to have to pay up.

I am really not so sure how much play Eli has in regards to re-signing players. He was pretty upset when Smith and Boss left last year. And I have a feeling that Reese strongly believes (which is probably true) that Eli makes a lot of players around him better. So he may believe that Eli will create another superstar.

Like you and I said, Cruz will want a big contract. Is Reese willing to bend?

I don’t see how he can let him walk, regardless of the price. Eli gets a lot out of his receivers this is true, but Cruz creates huge plays where there were none to be had.

Eli can’t will his receivers to do that. There are several games over the past year and half that we don’t win without Victor Cruz (and only Victor Cruz) on the field. Nobody in the NFL is playing the role of “game breaker” on par with Cruz right now.

I saw an interesting stat the other day. Over the last TEN YEARS, 5 receivers have accumulated a total of 6 receptions of 70+ yards. Cruz has done it in 25 GAMES.

While I agree that Eli has the distinct ability to make a player better than they should be, you can almost argue that Cruz has done something similar for Eli. Eli’s 5000 yd performance had a lot to do w/ Cruz taking routine short passes to the house. The dude is getting paid, even if that meant losing Nicks in the future (which I don’t think will happen btw).

Smith and Boss ain’t Cruz. Really, at this point NO ONE is Cruz. We may just possibly have TWO freakin’ Hall of Fame receivers (assuming good health) on our team, and Jerry Reese isn’t letting either of them go, and Eli is going to make it clear that he would not “be okay” with allowing either to walk. And yeah, the quarterback who has gained you two titles and is the best player in the NFL absolutely DOES have the power to dictate certain things to the team.

Cruz may get “tagged”, and perhaps be really mad about it, but the more likely scenario is that he be taken care of with a terrific 4-5 year contract. And the time to hope for a discount was about three weeks ago. As the reigning NFL “game-breaker” his agent will be holding just about all the cards and Reese will have to use both the threat of the tag and the possibility of injury during that one-year playing period to get any real reason into the conversation. Victor Cruz is going to become a very wealthy young man.

JR still has the Mike Wallace advantage. Since Cruz is restricted and will be given the 1st round tender tag, next year unless a team gives up a first round pick I think Cruz is set to make only 2 mil with nothing in the future guaranteed. So a long term deal works for both sides. There is the Steve Smith example so I think something can work.

Yes, our pass rush is on the rise, but the Cowboys killed us with quick releases Week 1 and we’ll see plenty of that again on Sunday. Romo-to-Witten is going to be their prime play unless Fewell helps out Chase. I don’t care about “unsung hero” articles. Hell, I’m the one who has been noting that Blackburn makes game-changing plays. I love the guy. But he simply does NOT get back quickly enough to disrupt passing lanes inside the hash marks, where Witten thrives. Hopefully, Fewell makes an adjustment that does NOT depend upon a deep safety coming up and allowing Austin or Bryant to beat us deep.

And if our defensive backs aren’t looking for a few double moves off Romo pump fakes after they have fed us a steady diet of quick releases then someone should be fired. The Cowboys aren’t going to forget that Miles Austin was five yards free of his defender late in the game last year and Romo just missed him on a double move that left Aaron Ross praying rather than covering.

I hate to parrot Tom Coughlin, but if we stop the Cowboys’ running game, and we run the ball successfully, and we avoid turnovers, I don’t think there’s any way we lose this game except flukes. If we can slow down their front seven’s pass rush there’s no way the Dallas secondary can compete on equal terms with our receivers. So we have to stay patient with the run and make it work. And if we can make Dallas one-dimensional (which I think we have a pretty decent chance to do with an injured running back corps for them and Chris Canty starting to work his way back to form for us) then we can take away the deep drop from Romo and force Dallas to be patient with their passing game, something they are NEVER very good at because they are so prone to errors when they have to make lots of successful plays on a drive.

When you play these guys you ALWAYS have the wild card of Romo’s “escapability”, Bryant’s and Austin’s raw talent, and Witten’s dependability, combined with Ware’s ability to dominate games. But they will have to play a damned near perfect game to beat us and I don’t think we’ll get that twice in a season from them.

The fact that we’re no longer playing our 5th string CB in the starting line-up alone will completely change this game.

In preseason, you see that EVERYONE had success against our backup CBs (guys after Hosley). Especially in our fourth preseason game, against the Patriots’ backups. Our guys were getting beat constantly. It was not a surprise to see Olgetree so successful in the first game. He posted 8 catches for 114 yards and 2 TDs against us. In the next five games, he posted a total of 13 catches for 127 yards with NO TDs! That goes to show you that he wasn’t special that night. Our guy was JUST THAT BAD. And that really did not surprise me. Though, truth be told, he didn’t get all those catches against our backup CB. Webster actually gave up a catch or two, and one TD. But regardless, Olgetree amassed most of his yardage against our backup CBs.

We’re a MUCH better than now. And they are a much worse team. They will have an injured Murray, Felix, and possibly Bryant. We SHOULD win this game. And I hope we do, and believe we will.

Every team is talented enough to beat your team on any given Sunday. Even a team like the Jaguars can beat us if they play a perfect game and we fail to do so. So in that light, the Cowboys can beat us, but as you implied, the stars literally have to align for them to eke out a win here.

And I do agree that covering Jason Witten is absolutely crucial here. He should be the #1 focus in our defensive game-planning.

Am I the only one that didn’t think the Chicago defense was all that “dominating” last night? If the Lions didn’t keep handing them the ball repeatedly, that could have easily been a 2 score Lions victory.

I’m actually not impressed w/ Chicago at all. It’s hard to say they’re overrated because they get surprisingly little press for a 5-1 team, but something is just missing for me. I just can’t see them as a team that is contending for a title.

The Bears’ defense is good, but old. Let’s see how guys like Erlacher do as the season progresses. I think they may wear down. And I think our defense will be better than theirs. We just need a bit of time for them to come together as a unit.

And Matthew Stafford has just become lazy with his footwork and makes some inexplicably bad throws for someone with his natural talent. Between that and the stupid mistakes the Lions seem to always make I think there are a lot of indications that their coaching staff isn’t among the best around. That is a very undisciplined, uncommitted, team.

I was going to make that point about the Bears defense. They are playing great right not but I don’t think it’s a level they can maintain. Their offense could make up for their defense though. I just think our offense can score 20 plus vs anyone and the bears OL makes me think our defense can hold their offense in check.